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Govt mass surveillance violated human rights, European Court rules
A mass surveillance programme by the UK government violated human rights, the European Court has ruled.
In a landmark case brought by charities including Amnesty and human rights group Big Brother Watch, the top court ruled that the "bulk interception regime" breached rights to privacy (Article 8).
It comes after US whistleblower Edward Snowden disclosed British surveillance and intelligence-sharing practices.
Also at Ars Technica.
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UK Government Mass Surveillance Violated Human Rights, European Court Rules
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< nobse> bleh... last night I had a dream... someone NMU'ed vim...
nightmare
-- in #debian-devel
(Score: 2, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday September 15 2018, @09:35PM (2 children)
My take: today's "bad" Muslims are a consequence not of the religion but of the rampant colonialism and imperialism in the last couple of centuries, but especially since WW2. The Ottoman Empire got wrecked, Jews flooded over into British-controlled Palestine before and during WW2, eventually leading to the creation of Israel by the U.N., U.S. overthrew the Iranian government in 1953, U.S. and Soviets fought a proxy war in Afghanistan, the U.S. adventure in Iraq and Afghanistan, etc. The end result has been a bunch of poor, weak, or undemocratic countries containing most of the world's Muslims, providing easy targets for extremism.
If Islam had become the religion of Europe, it could have eventually taken over the Americas by killing and conquering the natives, just as Catholicism and Christianity did. In this alternate history, Islam would be running the world, much as the U.S. does now, and Hindu and Christian extremists would be the ones strapping on the suicide bomb vests.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by Runaway1956 on Saturday September 15 2018, @10:57PM
I've thought along those lines. And, in fact, we have a more current history to look to, that lends credence to your thoughts. We invaded Iraq, for reasons that seemed good enough to our politicos. Time proved that those reasons were mostly bogus, but time hasn't erased the consequences of that invasion. The entire region is more unstable than it was before the invasion, providing sustenance for DAESH, or ISIS.
The Ottoman provided stability, whatever else it may or may not have provided.
(Score: 2) by Joe Desertrat on Saturday September 15 2018, @11:26PM
Just finished reading Wilfred Thesiger's Arabian Sands (highly recommended), a book in which he traveled among the Arabs of the "Empty Quarter" of Saudi Arabia. His travels took place when oil exploration in the area was just beginning and had not penetrated much, certainly not beyond the coastal areas. He had a very high opinion of the Bedu, finding them very hospitable and honorable. He found that the most "devout" Muslims, that is the ones who had the greatest enmity towards non-Muslims, were those who had the greatest contact with the outside world. Thesiger realized that he was likely the last westerner who was going to see this culture in its more or less pure state, it was already being inexorably destroyed by contact with westerners and their values. Those parts of the culture who had already dealt with westerners had at least on some level realized their culture was under attack, and were responding accordingly.
You destroy a culture, you rarely get something better in its place.